I am an emergency physician on staff at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where I have practiced for the past 10 years. I also serve as an adviser to Medscape Emergency Medicine, an educational portal for physicians, and an affiliate of WebMD. My other time is spent with my private house call practice called DR 911, providing medical care to both travelers and residents in Manhattan. I have a keen interest in medical technology and public health education.

Frank H. Netter, MD School Of Medicine: Developing A New Breed Of Medical School Faculty To Change The Way We Educate Doctors

A newly built and organized medical school, the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, has just enrolled its first class in August, 2013 and is poised to change the way we not only educate medical students, but how we select medical school faculty.

With an emphasis on producing primary care physicians who are team-oriented problem solvers, taught by medical school faculty hired for their expertise and skill in teaching as opposed to writing grants for research, the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine represents a game change in medical education.

So, what would make a 32-year veteran medical school professor give up tenure to embark on a new and unique challenge? A new breed of medical school–the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine.

After a 32 year career as a university professor, Stephen Wikel, Ph.D., an internationally recognized expert in tick saliva and diseases transmitted by ticks and other blood-feeding arthropods, opted for a change.

As a pathology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Dr. Wikel was responsible for teaching, training graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and biomedical research.

He gave up tenure, his $7 million lab, and the increasingly arduous struggle to obtain federal funding to become Senior Associate Dean for Scholarship, and Professor and Chairman, Department of Medical Sciences at the new Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University.

Charged with hiring faculty for the school, which welcomes its first class next week, Dr. Wikel is helping to create a new model for medical education. Unlike traditional medical school models where grant-writing, research and publishing drive salaries, Quinnipiac hired people specifically to teach. For those who enjoy teaching and wanted off “the grant treadmill” at a time when government research funding is dwindling, the model has proven to be very appealing.

According to Dr. Wikel, Quinnipiac received 967 applications for 22 full-time faculty members, many of whom gave up tenure. The faculty includes professors from Harvard, University of California at San Diego, Brown, University of Texas, and the University of Connecticut—several of whom gave up tenure—with Yale being the single largest source of applicants; all have MDs, PhDs, or MD/PhDs.

Dr. Wikel looked for applicants with experience in curriculum development and excellent teaching skills, conducting initial interviews via Skype. Finalists were invited for a two-day visit to Quinnipiac that included interviews and delivery of a “sample” medical school lecture before PA students, who evaluated each prospect. Individuals whose teaching skills did not meet the desired standard did not receive offers.

As opposed to tenured positions, Dr. Wikel explained that there will be both 3 and 5 year tracks available for faculty, renewable upon continued high performance–as assessed by both student and faculty reviews of teaching skills first and foremost–as well as other scholarly contributions.

Selecting Medical School Faculty Focused On Teaching Students

Dr. Bruce Koeppen, Founding Dean of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, believes that the foundation, future and success of medical education rests upon selecting faculty who are focused on teaching, as opposed to research.

According to previous investigations by Dr. Koeppen in the 1990s, the average number of hours that a basic science faculty member taught per year was “2.5 hours per year, with some doing more, with others doing none”.

In a clear departure from traditional models, his basic science faculty will spend 70 -75 percent of their time in the classroom and in curriculum development, 20 percent on scholarship, and 5-10 percent on service. No faculty will be expected to generate salary support based on research grants.

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